Partnership

We want to grow and we are ready for it. Our goal is to open 1000 Ziferblats by the end of 2025. Why such a big number? Because we see how people all around the world are willing to go to Ziferblat and how happy they are when it comes to their cities. We want all people on earth to be able to join our community. For this to happen we are looking for partners — people who are ready to become a part of our big social network by investing money, time and effort. For our partners, it is a huge experience in life – being of use for humanity, being profitable and also being an interesting yet difficult thing to do.

We are extremely happy to welcome every new member of this movement!

If you feel that you are ready to participate in this project, here is the basic information about how it all works.

For collaborating with partners in the most efficient and mutually beneficial way we’ve decided to use a franchise model. We help to open and to maintain quality in exchange for an initial payment and a percentage of future revenues. Most of the money goes into the work we do for you in helping to open up and then for supporting your Ziferblat in the future.

Basic Information

Initial Payment10.000$ + two return tickets from Moscow

Royalty
5% from revenue

Approximate investments40.000 — 120.000 dollars

Profit0 — 7.000 dollars a month after a year of work

We don’t like to promise fabulous money and guarantee 100% success — even the most conservative businesses aren’t safe from failure. Profit is highly dependent on particular circumstances such as the size of the population in the city, location of the space, rental price, salaries, taxes, food prices etc. It’s also important if you are going to work as a manager or will hire someone for this position. And of course the biggest thing that matters is how strong you will be involved in everything, how deeply you interract with us and the way in which you work with your team. 84% Of all Ziferblats which have been trading for a year or more are profitable. Since we’ve started the franchise not a single Ziferblat has closed.

HOW TO OPEN ZIFERBLAT

A. First, we meet and see whether we are made for each other. Or we aren’t — that happens too.

B. Then you tell us which city you are going to open in, how much money you are ready to spend and how you envision your Ziferblat. It’s important to say that we are not giving you a strict template to follow. It is crucial for every Ziferblat to be different and to have individual features and character — this is how we can be distinguished from faceless global chains. This is only possible if both partners and team have influence over the development of their ZIferblat. This is the only way for each Ziferblat to be adequate and fit organically into the society it belongs to. But still, it’s very important to preserve some coherent features especially in the field of hospitality and openness and this feeling can only emerge if there is serious work done with the team. We have already built a methodology for the teamwork and are ready to share it with our partners and to help to keep it’s quality.

C. Then we sign the franchise agreement and receive initial payment.

D. After that we assign a curator for you that will help you along the way and who will form a team of pioneers that will come to your place afterwards.

E. Then you will look for a space using described parameters and we will help you with that, consulting you after watching the videos you’ve made at the premises. Since you’ve found a few appropriate spaces, one person from our side comes to your city to visit all of them together with you. If one of them suits all of us you can start signing the lease. If there is none — we will have to start searching again.

F. Next step is invidual concept of your Ziferblat. What would it look like — spaceship, cozy livingroom, academic library, treehouse? As we said, it is very dependant on your team’s personalities because they will have an influence over Ziferblat in the future and it means that initialy your Ziferblat should help them to express themselves via it’s features. The concept of interior design is very helpfull in that case. Usually it forms after we’ve found the premises because the space, it’s location, it’s features and hundreds of other details open field for the imagination and dictates the interior design idea. We make a plan for repair works and even 3D-visualisation if needed (very usefull if there is a lot of work to be done), we create a document with the vision of interior design, furniture style and decoration. We determine the end date for repair works. When it’s all done one person from our side comes to make sure that it’s really so.

G. When the space is ready, 10 days prior to the opening we will send you a team of pioneers that will spend 20 days in total with you. For ten days they will teach your team, help to finish interior design, together with you they will organize opening party. Since the opening for another ten days they will share some knowledge with your team on practice. The pioneers will lead your team teaching them how to interract with the guests, take additional responsibilities, make their own projects, make coffee etc. Basically all acummulated collective wisdom of Ziferblat will be delivered through them.

H. Let’s go back to the beginning. At any moment of time, before team of pioneers arrives, we teach you and/or your manager for two weeks in one of the successfully existing Ziferblats. Within this period of time this person will make a way through whole stages of work in Ziferblat — from hosting to managing. He will meet all Ziferblat people including it’s founders, curator and other people involved in global processes. We will pass the book called «Secret Knowledge» and other theory. We will share all the practical experiences, will show how to work with guests and the team and will ask this person to organise at least one event for guests. These two weeks are very crucial for the information of the manager, whithin this period he/she can understand what is going on much more deeply. And our partner, even if he/she is not planning to work must spend at least three full days in one of the existing Ziferblats and pass the сrash course of Ziferblat’s secrets.

J. We give you all the theory that we have, inculding a book called «Secret Knowledge», a set of cases, some videos etc. We will also connect you to the internal groups in social networks to communicate with other teams.

K. We will create all social network public profiles and will add your page on our website. We will tell about your Ziferblat to all our audience around the world. Our pr-manager will teach you how to run your social networks which is also very important tool for keeping communication with guests and preserving Ziferblat’s spirit. We will also give you access to all graphical design that we have so you can use it on your social networks, posters, flyers etc.

Actually, we give much more than that. But we prefer not to overpraise ourselves!

HOW WE SUPPORT

А. You will become a part of a strong brand that all major world news organisations are told about, is the originator of the concept and whose recognition is constantly growing.

B. You will get a curator to which you and your team members can apply for advice. The Curator will contact you at least once a month to learn how you’re doing. Curator will help you to connect with other teams because they can help you to solve a lot of problems and share their good practices with you.

C. We organise periodic travels between Ziferblats for team members for knowledge and experience exchange. It also happens itself quite a lot — people communicate a lot between Ziferblats and always visit them if they have a chance to do so building strong friendship and sometimes even families ;)

D. All Ziferblats create a close connection and a spirit of coherence that allows all of them to keep the level of quality, mutually solve problems and adopt strong ties with each other.

E. Once a year we invite all partners to spend few days together, talk on different subjects, share ideas and learn a lot from each other.

F. We will curate the way you run your social networks to keep it cool and trendy.

G. Once a month you will receive a report that will tell how the things are going in every Ziferblat. You will see your position compared to others from different angles — average time people spend, number of people a day, profit, revenues from events etc.

H. The supercoolest thing of all time is our app that is almost developed. For our guests it will be a possibility to learn what’s going on in Ziferblat right now, who is sitting in there, what they do, attend an event or do something for Ziferblat in exchange for experience points and free time. It will be a huge gamification of all the activities people can do at Ziferblat. Plus they will be able to buy time and do a lot more stuff. For our partners its a good instrument to attract new people, make stronger connection with them, optimise financial flows, automaticly gather statistics.

J. We will help you to optimise the experiences.

What else… Ziferblat is almost four years old now, it survived the crisis of growth three years ago and now there are 14 Ziferblats in four countries, three more to come, including big Ziferblat village in Russia. The most important thing that keep us growing is the idea of friendship, sincerity and openness. This is what we are doing it for!

How to begin?

MORE IDEAS!

Ziferblat as a phenomenon outgrew the concept of paying for time long ago. And it actually has never been a key thing for us but was a mere instrument to bring to life something that is really valuable. What’s important is the way people communicate and interact with each other. All of those who have ever been to Ziferblat notice the unusual atmosphere of openness that fullfills the space. This atmosphere appears as a result of an immense work with the team. It may seem that we just hire cool boys and girls but it’s not the only truth. We value the fact that our team members being at work still keep their identity and do not wear any mask. That’s not an easy task but only having this attitude you can fully express yourself in life. We wipe out the distinction between life and work. Of course there is a thin line between this kind of freedom and anarchy and we’ve learned how to stay informal but still keep your work in order and being productive. We are ready to share this vision and spirit as well as the brand of Ziferblat to other fields of activities especially those that include communication with people. Thus we are already building an unusual thing in Tula region of Russia — a huge Ziferblat village. We believe that the idea of Ziferblat will ideally fit such forms of businesses as hotels, hostels, cafes, restaurants, co-working, newspapers, radio, games, shops, ferries and spaceships. If you have an idea of how to start a new form of collaboration with us feel free to tell us about it to indira.alymkulova@ziferblat.net

Ziferblat is a place where everyone can feel at home. Here you are free to be yourself; you can work, do some art, read a book, play piano, get acquainted with good people, attend events, drink as much tea or coffee as you want — in other words, do whatever you like as long as you respect the space and the other people in it.

Ziferblat’s doors are open to everyone. Each Ziferblat guest becomes a sort of micro-tenant of the space, responsible for it and able to influence its life. You will be welcomed by the Ziferblat community and able to work with them to help create, supply and develop this project.

Everything is free inside except the time you spend there; and by paying for the time you’ll be making a donation towards the further development of this social experiment.

Does "Ziferblat" interest you, and do you want to tell others about it in your own publication?
Please write to: ziferblat@ziferblat.net